KENEFICK, January 30, 2014 - Just after 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday, January 29th, Liberty County Sheriff’s Office (LCSO) received a 911 call regarding a man with a knife threatening people at Simmons Grocery in Kenefick. Deputies William Candelari and Robert Dunn arrived on scene at 3:12 p.m. and immediately confronted the man in the parking lot. The deputies tried to maintain a tactically safe position near their patrol cars, but the man, later identified as Paul Jay Riegert Jr., 24, of Baytown, kept making threatening gestures with the knife.

The situation remained tense, with Riegert refusing to obey commands to drop the knife and screaming at the deputies to shoot him. Initially, Dunn covered Riegert with a Taser while Candelari covered him with a pistol. But Riegert’s changing movements also forced the deputies to change tactics. Riegert subsequently moved to a position where Deputy Candelari was able to deploy his Taser on Riegert, keeping both him and Dunn safe and avoiding a deadly force situation.

Dunn and Candelari were able to take Riegert into custody without further incident. Liberty County EMS was called to the scene to examine Riegert. Once Riegert was cleared by EMS, he was transported to the Liberty County Jail. After the deputies consulted with the District Attorney’s Office, Paul Jay Rigert Jr. was booked-in for the offense of Aggravated Assault with a deadly weapon. As of Thursday morning, January 30th, Riegert still remained in jail with no bond set.